


The Rainbow Connection

by kittydesade



Category: Push (2009)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-13 20:22:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittydesade/pseuds/kittydesade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The next ten years are life-changing for Nick and Cassie. Almost captured, almost escaping, finding the one weapon they could use to destroy Division and unable to decide how to use it. Finding themselves at the center of a revolution and leading a war to survive, somehow they manage to keep each other sane and whole long enough to reach their happy ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lizzen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzen/gifts).



My name is Cassie, and I know why you're afraid.

You think you've created a weapon. You're afraid because we're beyond your control. You don't know what we are, you don't know what we can do, and you don't understand how we think.

Some of you are right to be afraid. You push us around, Push us and torture us, make us into lab rats and pull us apart to see what makes us special. And you're going to get what's coming to you for that. We know what you look like now. And we know what your secret weapon is.

Some of you still don't think we exist. But you know about us from comic books and movies. If we were real, you'd be afraid of us, because you think we're like the heroes and villains in the stories. Change or take over the world. But we're people, just like you. We just want to live our lives the same as you do, without being afraid.

I'm afraid all the time now. Division has my mother, and I don't know who my father is or if he's even alive. I'm staying alive so far, and out of Division's hands, thanks to a couple friends, but I don't know how long that'll last. And the future keeps changing. And I don't know what I'm supposed to do next.

\---

Kira stood outside the small private plane looking way too triumphant and exhilarated for Cassie's comfort. Sure, Nick trusted her. Maybe even cared about her, but in Cassie's mind that didn't change the fact that the girl was a Pusher, and a super-strong one thanks to Division's monkeying around with things.

She didn't say anything, though. Just kept her notebook tucked in front of her in her arms, satchel over her shoulder, and watched Nick and Kira hug each other and stay that way for what felt like a long time.

"You got a safehouse?" was the first thing Kira asked. To Nick. Cassie felt invisible.

He nodded. "Cassie doesn't see anything coming, so we should be okay for a little while."

And as if cued to acknowledge her, Kira leaned a little past Nick and smiled over at Cassie, who forced a smile and waved back. Maybe it was time to get moving on.

"Let's go." Kira grinned, practically bouncing. As though the inside walls of that plane weren't decorated with Carver's brains and blood. She'd seen that outcome before, and then everything that followed after the moment had passed seemed to say that Carver wasn't a problem for them, so that must have been the right outcome. Right?

Cassie wasn't going to mourn the terrifying, sneering Pusher, but it didn't make her any easier around Kira. She hadn't told Nick, though. Somehow it felt wrong telling him anything that made him less happy to see her.

Kira.

They went out for celebratory dinner and drinks before they went home. Or what passed for home. An extended-stay motel they could bunk in, cook in. Not too expensive, not too seedy. They'd paid a couple months' rent, and if they needed to she could always scare them up the money afterward. She hoped. Or Nick could. He was getting better as a Mover all the time.

Cassie limited herself to short sentences and mono-syllables, pleading exhaustion when they asked her what was wrong. Nick's attention was mostly taken up by Kira, anyway, which wasn't a surprise. He really cared about her, as much trouble as she was. They had history together.

And it wasn't like she and Nick had much history together, they only knew each other for, what, a week? A couple weeks? And, Hong Kong. And that was about it.

Assuming Kira hadn't Pushed him to think that. Which was a pretty safe assumption, Cassie thought, late at night when she was being more reasonable and thinking clearly and trying to ignore the giggles and Nick's quiet voice from the next room, happier than she'd heard him in a while. No, she hadn't Pushed him to that, Cassie had been there when they'd met up again that time. Unless something was going on that she couldn't tell, they were exactly what they looked like. Boyfriend and girlfriend.

Which made Cassie the third wheel. She'd been doing all right on her own before Nick came along, she told herself. Or, before she'd kicked her way into his apartment. She could do fine without him, too.

Knowing that didn't stop her from crying herself to sleep that night. It might have made it worse. The next morning, though, it was as though nothing had happened.

\---

"Want some?"

Clothes shopping. Nick had started by trying to suggest that her clothes were in need of replacement or repair, preferably replacement, and then when Cassie had balked had suggested maybe something warmer. And then it had turned into a full-blown fight over whether or not she was dressing like a prostitot, ended by Kira intervening and suggesting she just take Cassie to the mall, and they could deal with girl problems without guy input.

Cassie would never admit it, but she was a little grateful to Kira for that. At least the other girl didn't seem to think she was dressing like a slut or something. Which Nick obviously did.

Kira offered her a drink of her slushy through bright red stained lips and Cassie wasn't sure how to take that. "Sure," she shrugged, taking the oversized cup and taking a long drink. You didn't turn down food or drink when you lived like they did, you just didn't.

They'd even made it through the first round of shopping without Pushing anyone. Because Cassie knew how to bargain-hunt and had become a pretty damn good pickpocket, not that she told Nick that. And because somehow, picking people's pockets for their cash was less offensive to her sensibilities than Pushing people to make them think they'd paid. It was still stealing, no matter how you looked at it. But picking their pockets didn't do anything to their minds or their free will.

Anyway, after the first round of shopping they had a couple pairs of jeans and a pair of boots for the winter. Cassie took a long slurp off the drink one more time and passed it back. "What's next?"

"Next?" Kira eyed her in a way Cassie wasn't sure she liked. "Bras. We need to get you some actual bras, because those Wal-Mart bras aren't going to cut it."

She felt her cheeks turn flaming red before she could stop herself. "I like my bras..."

"Do they fit?"

Well, they did. Mostly. Except where they kind of felt loose in some places and cut into her skin in others and one of the hooks on the back was bent at a funny angle that scratched her. She looked down. "Mostly."

"Well, mostly isn't going to cut it today. Today we're going for full-on fabulous Cassie, everything must fit perfect. So, come on. Bra-shopping."

"Bra-shopping." Cassie mumbled, rolling her eyes at the full-on fabulous part of it.

They even got her to one of those fancy department stores where they took you into an alcove for a fitting. The lady there said that it would be difficult, and she should come back in a few years when her body had settled for a more long-term fitting.

"Your body will keep changing as you gain weight, lose weight, gain muscle, but once you settle down out of adolescence, you'll have more of an idea."

Bemused, Cassie could only nod. Half of her was thinking of how Nick would just be staring at her breasts, and the other half of her was recoiling in horror that she could think something so disgusting of someone so, well. Nice.

"Now, these have padding in them, for a little... extra confidence." The shop girl smiled in a way that was supposed to be friendly and encouraging, she was sure, but only came off as creepy to Cassie. "But you can remove it later if you want."

Another nod. And after a few more pokings and proddings and trying things on, she was left with an armful of brightly colored satin and not a clue what she should do with it.

"Help?" she whispered at the changing room door, hoping Kira was out there.

"What do you ohh..." Kira looked at the pile of bras in her arms. "All right. You'll need... one for light clothing, one for dark. One flesh tone, and one fun one, for kicks."

"... I don't need a fun bra. No one's going to see it but me. And maybe you."

"Which means it should be something you like, because even if no one else will see it, you'll be able to put it on and feel pretty. Right?" Right. Cassie nodded, and this time she even meant it. It kind of made sense. It was good advice. And Kira left her alone to pick out her fun bra, which was even better. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Not that she'd ever admit it. That felt too much like giving in, or letting go, or giving up or something. But she was starting to enjoy herself, and came out of the lingerie department swinging her bag and bouncing a little on her heels. "Now what?"

"Now..." Kira eyed her. "I think now we get some professionals to work on your beauty regimen."

Cassie's smile dropped away, replaced with a look of belligerent annoyance.

"You can keep the color! I just mean, make things a little smoother. Neater." More age appropriate, she heard anyway even if Kira didn't say. "Plus, if you let them go at you with all their stuff, they sometimes knock some off the cost. And you should replace your eye makeup every six months anyway."

Cassie couldn't actually remember the last time she'd bought makeup. And the prospect of new colors was kind of appealing. "I guess..." she muttered, following in Kira's footsteps. She wasn't going to enjoy it, though.

That resolution lasted right up until they got to the eyeshadow and glitter. Iridescent glitter, even.

\---

She should have seen it coming. Hell, she should have seen it coming when she saw Pinky coming; if she could see him, the Division Watchers could, too. And what she saw wasn't all that great.

Cassie didn't know how good a friend Pinky was to Nick, but he'd helped them out before. So when she saw him, the Division Mover, all the chaos that surrounded them that she couldn't make sense of, she told him anyway.

"Shit."

"Pretty much."

Nick wasn't happy. Kira wasn't happy, but, well, Cassie would have been suspicious and angry if she was. They got as many markers from her vision as they could. At least it was in the same city. Pinky had called, said he was heading on in to town as he was passing by, making a short detour out of his way to warn them. Division had figured out at least some of what Carver had been up to. Enough so that they knew there was a rogue Pusher out there, someone who had survived their drug cocktail. And they knew she'd escaped and killed one of their most experienced Pushers. Self-inflicted gunshot wounds only worked one way, that way.

"You guys better watch your backs. Just because the Hong Kong Division is pretty well shot to shit, that just means they'll be on the lookout for dangerous people." There was a heavy dose of irony in his tone, with which Cassie could agree. They weren't dangerous. They were just lucky. "I'll be in town in a couple of days, give you guys a call from there. Stay safe."

Stay safe. Easier said than done. _You stay safe,_ Cassie thought, as they wound their way through traffic in the taxi and then beat feet to the train station. Too late. Cassie glanced at the train clock as they ran past, collecting glares and belligerent shouts along the way as they hurtled over and through luggage and passengers. Too late too late they were going to be too damned late.

"Well where the hell is he?"

Cassie flinched from the anger in Nick's tone, even if she knew it wasn't directed at her and knew it was mostly just misplaced fear. She frowned, the headache pulling her forehead tight and knotted. Come on, visions. Come on. There had been...

Was. There was an alley. And it was raining. So, not right now, it hadn't been raining when they came in.

"Back, at the back, looks like a loading entrance..." She waved them to go ahead of her. Kira and Nick could take care of themselves, they were good. They were better than she was. Maybe just more physical.

Cassie stumbled along behind them, was dodging security and other people who were trying to keep people like her out of employee only areas, listing against the wall like she was tired. Or drunk. Her shoulder hit the door and shoved it open as her wrist hit the door bar and pushed it. On the bone, too. Ow. The sound of the impact almost masked the gunshot. Her body jerked. The vision hadn't changed, but now she got a different angle on it, and she could see what she saw when she came out the back door, almost running into Kira and Nick. Pinky, dead, a bullet hole in his throat. Most of his throat torn away. There were no footprints, no trace of anyone at the scene, and there wouldn't be. The Mover could just as easily have been on the roof or down several blocks or even watching him on the security camera they didn't dare step forward in front of. It didn't matter. Pinky was still dead, his blood running bright red against the pale concrete slab of a stoop, turning to pale pink as it washed away in the rain that had just started to fall.


	2. Tangerine Dream

She felt like everyone had to know. Everyone who saw her knew what she'd been doing. She smoothed her skirt down around her legs and remembered what it felt like to have a soft breeze blowing cooler and harder than it should have, suspended in the air as she was. Nick wasn't going to do that again anytime soon. No matter what he knew about how she felt about...

Cassie's cheeks flushed. She had to be walking funny, as strange as she felt in the pit of her stomach and in her knees and other places. Dizzy in the head. A little sore in ways she hadn't expected and her body ached. She was in good shape, her body wasn't supposed to ache like that.

Well, she was indulging in things she hadn't done before, wasn't she? Hadn't she? She reached the ferris wheel with its dizzying bright orange bars and leaned against the outer railing of the area, watching them spin.

"Cassie?"

Her heart pounded a mile a minute. She rolled her eyes as she turned, Kira, standing there, one hand outstretched as though she'd meant to touch Cassie's shoulder and thought better of it. "Yeah? I'm fine. Just a headache."

The older woman frowned. "They haven't gone away with time, have they. Or..." the frown faded a little. "Too much sun and sugar?"

Part of her wanted to tell Kira what had happened. Part of her shied away from telling anyone in her little cobbled together family. Sixteen, yeah, okay, a month to go till sixteen, but it wasn't that young as far as sex was concerned. She didn't freak out at talking about it at least. But Kira was like a big sister and she nagged and worried and then nagged some more out of worry. She didn't want that lecture from Kira right now, not today.

"I guess..." And then Nick was coming up behind Kira, gnawing on something fried on a stick and all she could see was the shine of grease on his lips. Uh.

\---

She was going to start demanding her own hotel room if this kept up. Which wouldn't be totally weird since the hotel clerk could assume it was her and Kira in one room and Nick in the other, instead of Cassie by herself in her own room and Nick and Kira having all the noisy sex they wanted to in the other one.

Okay, to be fair, they probably thought she was asleep. And she had been asleep until she'd heard someone go thump and then she snapped awake again with the reflex of a girl on the run most of her life. Keeping very still so no one would know she was awake. Or alive. Maybe the reflex came from playing possum. Maybe it came from hiding so no one would find her, whichever, the point was that if they looked over at her bed they didn't see her moving and so kept on doing what they were doing. Which was having sex. At least, it was in her mind.

Little murmurs and little skin-on-skin smacking sounds told her they were doing something. It struck her that she knew more intimately what they were doing now than she had a few weeks ago. The county fair hookup hadn't lasted long and had been mostly awkward fumbling under the shirt, but the weekend after that there had been this boy who was in town for Spring Break. Freshman year, too young and too dumb to know she was a little too young, and now she was sixteen anyway and… she was thinking about him to avoid thinking about what was going on in the next bed.

Not that she was thinking about them. That would be gross. But she couldn't quite stop thinking about Nick. Where before, a year ago, even, she'd been thinking that his hugs were safe and when he smiled, however rare that was, he looked like a total goofball. And that felt good.

Now she knew what it felt like to press her lips to someone else's and have it lead to fumbling hands and the warmth of someone's body all against hers. She had a hell of a lot more ideas about sex, things a person could do to another, things that made her body tighten and squelch.

She'd seen Nick with his shirt off before but now when he stripped halfway to wash down or something she had to find something else to do quick before she started staring. There was this urge to touch him now that hadn't been there before, or maybe in a way that hadn't been there before. See if he was still as warm as she remembered from the last hug.

And she wanted to know what it was like to kiss him, so much so that sometimes when she looked at him her fingertips touched her mouth and then she had to pretend she was doing something else. Was he a good kisser? Would Kira even tell her if she asked, and how the hell was that an appropriate question anyway? Ugh, embarrassing. And awkward. Kira would probably just assume she was talking about kissing boys in general, anyway. Or maybe that Cassie was interested in one in particular.

Which she kind of was. Except she wasn't going to do anything about it, she'd just have to find someone for herself. If that was what she wanted.

And she wasn't sure what she wanted that way. Sex seemed like it was kind of fun, now. Touching and kissing was more interesting, but this crush on Nick didn't seem to be just about that. Although it had been way easier to deal with when she hadn't had all these sex chemicals stampeding through her blood demanding that she get laid.

Nick was snoring. She'd missed when they finished up and dozed off, but maybe she should do the same. Maybe she could kind of talk about it with Kira in the morning, if she remembered. Just say something about a crush on an unavailable guy, and how did you get over that. With luck, Kira would assume Cassie meant one of the guys they were in contact with in the rebellion thingie who they didn't see that often. That kind of unavailable.

It took her a while to get back to sleep though, flushed under the covers. After she'd awkwardly taken care of the nagging physical aches there was still the thoughts chasing themselves around in her head, what did this mean? What did she do about this? Anything? Nothing? Should she strike out on her own? Was it just a crush and not worth the fuss she was making over it? Uppermost in her list of worries, what if Nick found out?

Ugh. If he found out, she'd deal with it then. The red numbers on the clock were ticking down the hours she had left to catch some sleep, might as well get it.

\---

"Hey, Kira?"

"Yeah?"

"How… is there some way to know what you should do if you have a crush on someone?"

Kira blinked at her in confusion, and Cassie avoided her gaze. She picked at the edges of her jeans instead, where one ribbon was coming frayed off the hem. "I think… that depends on the person," the older woman said finally. "And the crush, I guess."

"Say… you've got a crush on someone who's just, unavailable. For at least a couple of good, solid reasons, reasons you wouldn't really want to go against. How do you get over it?" Because that was what it boiled down to, didn't it? Getting over it. He wasn't interested, he had Kira. He wouldn't be interested, and she would know, wouldn't she.

 _The future is always changing, Cassie. Even a tiny thing can have a great impact somewhere down the line._

Shut up, Mom.

In the background, the radio in the diner was crooning Hopelessly Devoted to You. Cassie made a rude gesture in the rough direction of Australia. Or the speaker. Either or both.

Kira's mouth curled a little at that. "I'm not sure it's as simple as doing something to get over it, but having things to keep your mind away and off of it should at least help. That, or rebound relationships, which are unlikely to turn out well, and hoping or praying to find somebody else." Small shrug. Her tone was gentle, matter-of-fact, and she didn't ask questions. Cassie could still at least hope that Kira didn't know who she was talking about.

"Rebound relationships… Hard to have anything you'd call a relationship when you live like we do." She leaned back in her chair a little, pulling her knee closer to her chest as she did.

"Well, we manage."

"You mean, you and Nick manage." Cassie had to point that out because she felt it was an important distinction. Kira and Nick were special.

Kira sighed, sitting up a little as though trying to pull the younger girl out of her shell. Cassie sank back into her chair further, maybe reflex, maybe habit. Fingers pulling the threads of her red ribbon where it had bleached out to some pasty tangerine color. She felt kind of bleached like that. Off-color. Like something was wrong inside.

"You can manage, if you find someone you want to try hard enough with. Me and Nick, we just… yeah, we got lucky at first. But it's not all wine and roses. It's hard work. That you're capable of, too, whether you… you want it or not, right now." Kira leaned back in her chair, giving up and letting Cassie have her mood for the moment.

The radio switched over from one identical sounding pop starlet to the next while Cassie thought about it. "I think right now all I'm capable is a bunch of weekend flings," she muttered. "With really hot sex, so it's not all bad."

Kira blinked. Then chuckled. "Aren't you a little young for weekend flings with really hot sex?"

Yes. But she wasn't going to back down now. "I'm sixteen."

"Like I said." Dryly, but that was as close as Kira would get to forbidding Cassie to do much of anything that didn't have a direct impact on group safety, or her safety. "At least you're being careful."

Cassie snorted. "I'll be using condoms for any weekend flings I may have, don't worry. I'm even looking ahead and making sure he's not some kind of serial killer or something." Which didn't seem likely, but she'd really rather not get roofied into some crazy person's bondage and snuff film. Most of the guys she fooled around with were just college freshmen and sophomores looking to prove their manhood or something.

"And not drinking what they give you unless it's poured from the b—"

"—bartender, yes, and looking both ways before I cross the street, and I wear a coat and don't spend the night, yes, nanny." Cassie stuck her tongue out at her. "Are you sure you're not, like, someone's grandmother? You nag enough…"

"I'm not nagging! I just worry about you." Kira laughed.

"Uh-huh. Worry about the boys and girls I bring home at night, I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, I just… wait. Girls?"

Cassie just grinned and took a long, loud sip of her soda.

\---

They'd been eating snacks and watching hotel room TV while they waited for Nick and Kira to get back, and somehow this had turned to seeing what kind of crappy porn movies they had at this hotel. They laughed at them, snuggled on the bed, threw Cheetos at each other.

"Is this doing anything for you?"

Maybe a little. Cassie wasn't sure if she was supposed to like porn or not. It was definitely giving her ideas, and the ideas were fun, but the actual effect of the movies themselves… she shook her head. "Not really."

He reached over her and turned the TV to the weather channel, tugging her closer with the arm around her waist.

Jake was a Shifter, so he was at least easier to be around than if he'd been maybe a Pusher or a Bleeder, and not much older than she was. All of seventeen, going on eighteen soon, going on thirty seven for how they aged when they were being hunted, but in this relationship (if you could call three weekends and a stolen Wednesday a relationship) they were sixteen going on seventeen like the song said. And she could trust him with what she was, those moments when she stopped and stared off into space for a second, clutched her head or had to pull out her notebook and scribble something down before it was lost.

The few times he'd turned up in her future, they'd all been nice, too. That was something, right? Maybe it meant that this would work out. She still thought about Nick, but those times were getting to be less. And there were times when she looked forward to running into Jake again.

"You think they're okay?" he asked, glancing at the door again.

Cassie shrugged. "They're okay." No, _I think_ , no uncertainty, she'd seen her and Nick and Kira all getting lunch together in a couple of days, judging by the upcoming sports game over the counter at the bar they'd be sitting at. So unless something drastic happened, yeah, they were okay. Advantages to being a Watcher.

"Oh…" his voice softened. "Right."

She wasn't sure what that was about. Maybe because with her being a Watcher she'd see any bad things that happened before they happened. She'd complained often enough, when things were tense, of seeing dead bodies and torture and pain and blood. Right now she saw the diner bit, the moonlight outside her hotel room later that night as she slept undisturbed if not all peacefully, and the harvest colors of the bedspread bunched up between her hands, but she wasn't going to tell him that. Let him come up with it on his own.

"Come on, we might as well relax till they get back."

He made a face at her like he wasn't sure how to do that, but put his arms around her waist. After another second he pulled her in closer to him.

"I thought you were the one who wanted to relax."

His breath was hot and distracting on her neck. "I guess," she said. Smiled, too. "You think this is relaxing?"

"I think you'll be really relaxed later."

He was right, too. She was almost asleep, face down on the blankets with her clothes rearranged politely around her and her hair falling down around her face and off the bed. Feet in a couple of the scattered pillows. "I've got cheeto dust on my collar," she mumbled, glancing sideways. Bright orange neon dust on her collar and shoulder. It wasn't even so much the cheeto dust as that it looked kind of like it was in the shape of a handprint. And maybe it didn't automatically mean what she still smirked to remember, but she'd think about it at least.

Jake grinned, flopping down next to her. "No problem," he said, and shifted it all away.


	3. Fields of Gold

It wouldn't go away. No matter how many times she washed it, the blood stains wouldn't go away, they wouldn't come out of the shirt. And this was Kira's favorite shirt. Maybe it had a couple faded patches but it was her favorite shirt, it always got packed in their go bag when they were in one place long enough and she would be so unhappy that Cassie had gotten blood all over it…

She flung the mass of cloth and soap back into the water, sobbing. Big gulping breaths and sticky sobs that dripped tears and snot into her mouth, even when she wiped her face with her sleeve. The bathroom light washed out her skin, made it look yellow and jaundiced and green where the veins showed through.

 _Kira's gone. She's gone, Cassie._

 _She's gone, Nick._

Words she never, ever had wanted to say. Words she wanted to rip out of her mouth even having said them. Cassie looked up at herself in the mirror, scraggly blonde hair streaked with color, god that looked stupid. Untidy, messy. Kira had never looked messy, she'd always looked perfectly beautiful, even when she was kicking the crap out of some Division goons. And here was Cassie, stupid, messy, awkward Cassie who'd screwed up again. She hadn't been able to stop this from happening, she'd gotten careless, she'd seen them dying too many times and maybe she'd started to take it for granted that they would always get out some how. And now Kira was dead. By a fucking Bleeder.

She pulled the shirt out of the water again and rinsed it carefully. Squeezed it dry and hung it up over the railing of the shower. Kira's favorite shirt.

Back out of the bathroom, into the hotel room proper. With its bland mustard-colored walls and its bland beige colored blankets and its bland imitation wood furniture, and Nick passed out on the bed. He must have been passed out, it was the only way he got any sleep anymore. They were both running on automatic pilot.

Cassie reached for the vodka she'd picked up when Nick wasn't looking, which was most of the time now. Vodka was sharp, not her best choice of alcohol but it would also get her blitzed fastest, and when she was blitzed maybe she wouldn't feel this crying, sobbing guilt inside her. Taste the blood mixed with the snot in her mouth from biting the inside of her cheek. And maybe she'd have her more visions, the sharper and clearer ones, and figure out how to get them out of this mess.

Worse came to worst, she'd pass out and choke to death on her own vomit and then it would all be over, wouldn't it?

Couple shots of vodka on an empty stomach. Not the best idea.

\---

At least Nick was eating again.

She worried about him. So much. The fear that she'd managed to push back with years and years, by now, of successful escapes and thwarted visions of bodies was overwhelming. Grief for Kira, a hole in her heart and in their lives where quiet grins and wise advice had been. And fear for Nick, when he wouldn't eat and wouldn't talk and had to be steered all over the place.

Back before, he'd made jokes about her being their guiding light. "So, I'm a bad soap opera for old folks?" "Sure, if you want." It wasn't so funny now that she really was steering him to the simplest of things. Sit down at the table and eat, Nick, you have to eat. Tuck you in and you can get some sleep, okay, Nick?

She tucked herself in with him, some nights. And felt weird about it because that was Kira's place, Nick and Kira in one bed and her in the other. But it was easier than sleeping alone. Much easier for her than curling up and crying into her pillow, pressing her face into the rough hotel cotton so long her breath stank and her face grew entirely wet and soaked the pillow beneath. Easier for him, or at least it seemed that way, when he could curl up around another warm body in the bed and not feel the great empty expanse of the mattress. Cassie was still tiny; at 19 she wasn't likely to get any taller, but Kira had been pretty tiny too. And she was alive.

And Kira wasn't.

Nick was eating again. They sat down and had bowls of noodles and did Cantonese together, running over the syllables until he pronounced her passable at that set, and then working on the next. She'd grabbed onto the studying as a way of making him talk to her and by now it was a part of their routine. A new routine that didn't depend on Kira, or require a work-around for her absence. Which was good. It saved them those moments, the one where he'd been staggering around half-awake and worrying because she wasn't back yet, or the one where they'd had to go and he'd shouted how she wouldn't find them. She wouldn't find anyone ever again.

But they could do Cantonese. And they could eat soup, and slurp noodles, and she was in the middle of reciting the day's lesson when the syllable turned into a long, drawn-out "oW-w-w-ow-ow-ow"

"What? What's wron…" Nick leaned towards her, then stopped when she reached for her sketchpad. So, nothing wrong exactly, but she was having a vision. Best to let her have it then. Or she'd take his fingers off for trying to stop her from drawing. Good Nick.

Cassie drew and sketched and drew until she had a small mess of papers in front of her, the corners in the damp circle left by their noodle cups. At least a couple of them didn't look good, but as the headache eased again she was able to see more of what she'd seen in glimpses, or at least extrapolate.

"Is that…" Nick frowned hard at the picture of a girl in a hospital bed, yellow and blue in her hair. Cassie had indigo streaks now.

"Me in a hospital bed, yeah." She pointed at the door off to one side and sort of distant. A door with a big red panic button. "Probably in a Division hospital."

Neither of them liked that. Nick really didn't like it, fingers clenching on the plastic spoon till it snapped beneath the tension in his hand. Cassie jumped and glared at him half-heartedly. "And who's that," he pointed, ignoring the look.

"That's you. Watching. I don't know why."

She didn't look up at him, but she knew what he was thinking. Her boyfriend, for a little while anyway, Jake. He'd been Pushed into thinking he was a Division agent, getting in close to them to turn them in. Only Cassie's vision had saved them that time, and they still didn't know what happened to him. Cassie had snapped at anyone who came near her for a couple weeks after that.

"And that?"

"That's… us." Her eyes cleared. "Running out of a building. And that's my Mom."

That vision had been kind of blurry, which made sense if she was running. But she hadn't wanted to bring it to his attention until he realized it for himself. "Us… and your Mom. And a bunch of other people…"

Cassie reached across the table, covering his hand with hers. "I'm not sure about that part. But I think… Nick, I think we can get my Mom out. I think we can make a good hit on Division. And I think… I think it's because of what Kira did."

He flinched at her name. He always did, even if it was only a little. "You mean, her… the person who got fired over what happened. Because it's a replacement …" Comprehension dawning. "It's a replacement administrator. And they always have to do things their own way."

"And there's turnover, and no one's sure what's going on, and it's going to trickle down to security, yeah. Nick, I think we have a real shot at this. I think she gave us a chance."

"A chance." Nick looked down at his noodle cup, stained bright yellow-green with the spices, a color never found in nature but occasionally found in Cassie's hair after a dye job gone bad. "God, Cassie…"

"It's now or… Whenever the next opportunity comes along. We don't know when that will be."

She didn't want to do it either. She didn't want to do much of anything right now. She wanted to curl up in a room in a corner of the world somewhere where Division couldn't touch them and cry until she had no tears left, and then she wanted to sleep for a week. To sleep until the pain went away. She wanted to be the rescued one for a change, instead of doing the rescuing. She wanted someone _else_ to make everything okay.

Except there wasn't anyone else. And this was their chance. This was a _huge_ chance, she knew. She could see these things.

Nick turned his hand a little and laced his fingers with hers and pressed their palms together, nodding. His hand almost enveloped hers. "See… see what else you can get," he croaked out, releasing her hand and jerking to his feet, sending the chair rocking back on his legs. "I'll … try and think of something." He picked up the noodle cups and walked them over to the trash can, dropping them in and then leaning both hands on the wall, head bowed.

Cassie looked over at him for a long, long moment before she bent over her notebook again and started to sketch.

\---

Cassie smiled a little. Not quite because he looked cute for the first time in weeks, or because he was frowning so hard at the bottle of Nine Dragon Soy Sauce. (Or what was labeled as Nine Dragon Soy Sauce.) Or because he was trying so hard for her sake, or any of those, or even all of those. Just because. Something indefinably Nick.

He let out an explosive breath and leaned back. The liquid didn't look any different, but in about ninety seconds he had transformed Division's super-serum into an inert substance. Not unlike Nine Dragon Soy Sauce only, Nick asserted, less gross.

They had had to be careful. If they did anything that looked too much like modifying and testing the formula, a Watcher seeing that in their vision might pick up on what they were doing and come interrupt them. Everything had to be portable, in case someone figured it out. And now they had to be fast, to take advantage of the time window. He'd been working for over an hour, now, while Cassie got ready. Everyone was brain-fried.

It was a crazy plan, but it was starting to look like it stood a chance of working. And that gave her knee-wobblies of relief.

"Ninety seconds," he shook his head. "Any more than that and we risk it turning into something nasty." And he wouldn't risk her life. And she wasn't arguing with him on that point. She didn't want to die. More importantly, she didn't want him to lose anyone else.

"Nuke the rest of the Chinese?" And then we go, her tone said. He nodded, dumped the last of the rice into bowls and the vegetable glop, now gone cold, on top of that. Her pen pointed at him as he fixed their food, then at the Nine Dragon bottle. "I am not putting that on my fried rice."

Nick laughed, startled and wide-eyed at the sound.

\---

She didn't have to pretend to be scared for this; Cassie was fucking terrified. They'd hooked up the IV first and then waited a couple minutes, maybe for them to get Nick into position. The wall where he was supposed to be watching had a big black mirror-thing on it. One-way glass. She couldn't see what was going on.

And she didn't dare struggle against the bindings for fear they'd drug her into unconsciousness. And then she wouldn't be able to participate in her _own_ escape, let alone anyone else's.

Behind that glass anything could be happening. They could have Pushed him, or be Pushing him into believing anything they wanted him to believe. Jake had come after them, they could be after the same thing with Nick. If Division knew their plans, if they knew she was here to break out her Mom and steal their most valuable asset, they'd try anything. Including Pushing. _Especially_ Pushing. It still gave Cassie the wobbles but Division had no such compunctions.

Changing the formula didn't change the color. She watched, wide eyed and terrified and crying helplessly as it disappeared down the tube, despite knowing that this was their plan. Hell, this was her plan, this was her crazy desperate plan, she knew better, and she still couldn't breathe for the terror pounding through her veins. Along with the serum.

Everything went cold. The air, with the doctors and the walls and the beds and the other patients and the equipment all taking on the super-sharp lines and focus. Her skin puckered and bumped, hair standing on end. It wasn't working. They'd Pushed him, maybe they'd outright killed him, oh god, Nick was dead, he was dead and she was alone or dead or worse and

The glass shattered inward. Spraying in the faces of the scientists and cutting them to ribbons. Not literally, but there was blood everywhere and they were screaming and then a familiar pair of strong, cotton-clad arms was scooping her up, the IV sliding out of her arm like magic. He blasted the door off its hinges and she burrowed her head in the crook of his neck and curled her fingers tight in his shirt until the last minute.

It felt like they'd been looking for her for hours. It couldn't have been more than a tenth of one. Her arm still hurt where they'd put the IV in, but she was regaining her equilibrium. She could freak out later. They had a mission to accomplish.

"Hsst!" She grabbed Nick's arm as the flash hit her of scrubs and security uniforms down a corridor that looked like it was in front of them. He curled an arm around her and backed them through the push-door behind them, into what seemed like a stairwell, then floated them up above the landing. No one opened the door, but she did hear footsteps passing. The alarm was still going off.

"Safe?" he whispered. She frowned, stretching out her senses. Then nodded.

They dropped to the floor on quiet sneakers and kept running. Her mother's door had flowers outside of it. Big, painted-on institutional ones.

Up a couple of flights and back again and she wondered what would happen when they found her. Cassie had some idea, her mother would be drugged, they'd need to help her out, but what would really happen? Would her mother even recognize her? Would she know her, after nearly ten years and who knew how many drugs? _So drugged up she can't even hold a spoon._ Had her mother seen this coming, even?

With everything that had started with her asking Nick for help. Even before that, Nick's father, and everyone. Everyone her mother had lined in place to help them get the serum. She had to know. She had to see this coming.

Flowers on the door. Why was it always flowers? Cassie smiled anyway, a feral, angry grin. Division wouldn't see this coming.

"Blow it," Cassie told Nick, one arm flung out along the line of doors. Doors painted up to look like children's rooms, what a lie. "Blast them down. All of them."

\---

Toby was pacing, and Cassie couldn't blame him. It was one thing to break into Division with a group of seasoned revolutionaries, if they were that. It was a whole other thing to be hiding out with a bunch of half-drugged former captives.

Cassie would have been more worried if she had any visions to the effect of Division coming to get them. As it was, she had a screaming headache and she was more than happy to stay curled up under Nick's arm. Thick warm weight against her rib-cage, pulling her tight against his chest at an angle that made her back do funny things but she wasn't about to move. He'd passed out once they got to the safehouse, and she threatened anyone who even considered waking him with a gruesome death by chicken tongs and kebab skewers.

Poor guy was exhausted. He'd done all the heavy lifting, she'd just pointed him like a really effective crossbow.

"That's right, bitches," she murmured, smiling. "I got a crossbow."

"You're doing the movie thing again," Nick mumbled just behind her ear. His breath tickled over the back of her neck, hot and smelling of fast food. She giggled again and smacked the hand on her stomach, lightly.

"Go back to sleep."

"Mmm…" Nick stirred, shifting, rolling onto his back and pulling her on top of him. Not that he had to pull really hard. It was a small bed, she didn't want to fall off, and stretching out along him was nice. With her head on his chest, even if it wasn't the best position to go to sleep in. Too stretched, her head at too high a level. He really was broad-chested. And bulky. And muscled. And, mmm.

Hey, if she was lusting over him again, it had to mean she was getting better, right?

He looked down at her, smiling a little as he combed his fingers through her hair and watched her think. "It's not the sleepy kind of tired, actually. Although sleep does help not to be tempted to move. Or Move." Before she could point it out, which she was so totally about to.

"Exactly," she wrinkled her nose at him, turning and resting her chin just above his ribs. "So go back to sleep."

"Fussy woman. What did I ever do to you?" Teasing. He was teasing. She'd missed the Nick teasing.

So, of course, she tickled him. Not enough to actually make him squirm, though. "Stubborn man."

"I do my best.

Cassie grinned. This was nice. It was quiet except for Toby pacing up and down, it was peaceful, everyone was either asleep or making noise in another room. Division wasn't coming after them. At least, not that she saw yet, and hopefully they had at least the night before they had to evacuate. Go underground. She didn't know how bad they'd crippled Division, but everyone said her Mom was the best Watcher they had, even now, so that had to have done something, right? Her smile started to fade as she traced her fingers up and down along the mid-line of his chest.

"How's your Mom?" Soft voice. Pretty hazel-blue eyes staring at her. Cassie's smile faded all the rest of the way away, and she looked down.

"Getting better? I think. The drugs are getting out of her system anyway." She turned her head again and tucked her cheek to his chest, then slipped down to bury her face in his side.

He leaned over and kissed the top of her head, nuzzling slowly side to side into her hair. "Okay…" his hand moved over her back, a spot of body heat against the cold of the house. "Okay."

She burrowed into him when he rolled over onto his side. She didn't want to think about that right now. Not how her Mom was doing, or how they'd get her out of whatever kind of stupor to withdrawl they'd have to deal with. She hadn't wanted to a second ago but her thoughts kept going there. She just wanted to be safe, and held. And right now she was safe and held, wasn't she? So, think about that, and not about anything else. Yeah, she could do that.

Nick's arms tightened around her for another minute or five before his body relaxed, and she heard his breathing slow. He was drifting off again. Just the sound made her smile, the puff of his breath into her hair and the way his shirt smelled of him, sweaty and Nick-y. She filled her mind with that, with all the little details of how the belt buckle on his jeans was pressing into her hip and how firm and solid his chest was and how warm he was, almost sticky-sweaty hot, against her body. And how his breathing went just a little snore-like, kind of a snertling, and how his fingers curled against her back as he slept.

And finally, so did she.


	4. Being Green

"Hey, Cass…"

Cassie sat up and craned her head around, looking over her shoulder. Nick's voice. Nick's footsteps as he came out onto the deck and down to sit next to her on the stairs leading down the hill from the porch. "Hey…" It was all hills, here. They were in the hills.

"Taking a break?" he sat so their shoulders touched. Cassie nodded.

They'd been talking to her Mom about Division. Her and some of the other escapees, the ones that had elected to say. She still didn't know how she felt about all this, and it had been a while since the escape. Long enough that she was pretty sure they weren't going to find them here. Not unless they made a mistake.

Which would happen eventually. Cassie wasn't so stupid as to think they could stay here indefinitely, but it was nice to know they had the chance.

Surrounded by green on all sides, trees and shrubs and very little in the way of natural features unless you went a ways into the woods, no Watcher could find landmarks here unless they went onto the land proper. They rarely went into town to get supplies, and maybe someone could trace the town from a Watcher or a Sniff, but probably not. They'd left very little trace. Nick had all but collapsed the building on their heads to destroy the traces. No Sniffs. No Watchers, as best as they could control, and she was keeping an eye out. So was her Mom, now that she was off the drugs.

"God, I want a cigarette." Nick glanced at her, wide-eyed and startled. "No, I mean... I don't, I just... this is the kind of scene where, in the movies, I'd be smoking, you know? And maybe French."

Nick still gave her the sideways eye, but now it was gentler and with more of a smile. "You could learn French."

She wrinkled her nose, shoved her shoulder back into his. "I'm still working on Cantonese."

He laughed, slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him. Living out here in the hills made things slow down, at least it felt that way. They lived waking up with the sun and pulling back into the house when it went down. People kept a grocery list on the fridge and once they had a day with nothing to do, they went into town and got the resources, no regular days. No regular routines except the ones that were self-contained on this little plot of land, in the shelter of the trees.

And it was safe. As safe as anywhere could be. Maybe Division had bigger fish to fry, now, than to send people after them. Maybe Division couldn't get a lock on them, who knew, but it was as safe as they'd ever been and they were learning how not to be scared again.

After a little while, Cassie turned her head on his shoulder and snuggled into his side more, curling her fingers over his shirt. They slept together these days, stayed in the same room. She'd slept upstairs in the attic for a little while, a couple nights in a bunk bed before she got tired of tossing and turning and went down to sit with Nick and make sure he went to sleep. They'd sat up and talked until some godawful hour of the night, and it was still dark outside at least when he fell asleep. Still dark, but the house was quiet now. So she went to sleep right there, in his oversized bed. And woke up with him wrapped around her like a child with a teddy-bear, clinging.

She moved her stuff into his room and dared everyone with belligerent silence to say something, but no one did.

It was one of the best ideas she could have had, too. Talking to her mother pulled her mind and heart apart in all kinds of interesting ways. Her mother had spent years drugged up in Division before they could break her out, while Cassie had been growing from girl to woman with only Nick and Kira and Dani and sometimes Toby and Fran for guidance. She'd had to become a revolutionary while her mother had had to fight to survive with her mind intact. It was complicated. That was her favorite word for things now, complicated. It summed up a whole mess of things.

She and her Mom talked about Division a lot these days, pulling the information out bit by bit, but they both took frequent breaks. They both needed frequent breaks. Nick, she was starting to notice, hovered around the edges of wherever they were talking at the time in case she needed him. Most of the time, that wasn't really a bad thing.

Most of the time, they didn't say anything, either. And _that_ wasn't a bad thing.

\---

"How many more of these sessions do you think you're going to need?" Nick glanced at her as they walked, feet crunching in the early snow. Well, his feet were crunching in those big boots he wore. Moon boots, she called them, the one time she put him on and told him he had oversized feet and stomped around the porch to get the snow off.

Her footprints were smaller, more delicate, and more rambling as she leaped over fallen branches and around stumps and made circles in the first snow of the season.

"Not many more? I think..." Her footsteps slowed, as though the snow and the mud were giving her a hard time even though it hadn't before. "I hope. She still... she doesn't seem good, Nick. Even without being on the drugs."

Nick shrugged. "Almost ten years locked in a tiny room, drugged up and treated like she was, I don't know if she's ever going to be... the way you remember."

They'd had this conversation before. Cassie nodded. "I know. I guess sometimes..." It hit harder than others, and now was one of those times. Hence the walk in the woods. She glanced over at Nick, realizing that his suggestion had been way less out of left field than she'd thought. He was taking care of her, still. Which was kind of nice, since she wasn't sure what to do. Her session with her mother had ended in a discomforting memory of being injected with inert serum.

"Sometimes?"

She shook her head. "Sometimes it gets to me more than others." And that could encompass any one of half a dozen things about the way they lived, what they were doing.

He nodded, accepting that as both an answer and a sign that she wasn't ready to talk about it just now. "Any ideas what we're going to do with the serum?"

"Throw it out?" Cassie replied, jerking a little out of reflex and skidding on the snow. Nick caught her by one arm before she landed on her ass in the wet, holding her upright. "Thanks. I don't... I don't know. I don't want to use it. I don't know of any way we could really test it without potentially killing someone or overloading their powers. I mean, theoretically..."

"Theoretically a lot of things. But we can't sit on it forever. Or... I guess we could, I don't know."

Cassie closed her eyes for a second, slipping her hand into his as they walked. "We could. We shouldn't. It's an incredible asset, it's a bargaining chip, it's a lot of different things depending on how we use it."

There was a short pause before he said it. "We _could_ use it."

"We could."

But neither of them was comfortable with that. They reached the edge of their land, their territory, whatever it was called. The land that a crotchety old anti-government man let them use, on the condition that they didn't "mess it all up." Which was fine by them. They just needed a place to crash, to store their food, and to hide. To rest.

Cassie wanted to rest. She didn't want to be thinking about what to do next, and she definitely didn't want to do it in that half-sideways zen way they had to do to hide their plans from Watchers. She wanted someone else to pick up the fight.

"Can't we just stay here?" she asked, and it sounded like she was whining. Ugh. "We could just stay here, hide out till..."

Till what? Till it blew over, went away? It wasn't ever going to go away. Till she could handle it? Till her mom was better? No one could say when that would be. Till Division came to its senses, which would happen the day after never. The longer they hid out, the more chance there was that they would be discovered. Or the more chance they would become complacent and then, again, discovery and very bad things. They'd stopped walking so she could contemplate the very bad things.

"On the bright side, if they catch us? By now they'll probably just figure we're too much trouble and kill us."

"Cassie..." It wasn't until Nick looked at her that she realized what her voice sounded like. Too high, too giggly. Giddy. Verging on hysterical, and when the hell had that happened? She should be coping better than this. They were fine, they were safe. As safe as they ever got.

She shook her head, dropping her gaze to the snow. Little blades of grass peeked up, daggers of green beneath all the white snow and black branches. She hated winter for mostly this reason. Too little sun, too long nights, and everything dimmed to a range of gray. Her fingers reached up and curled around the dyed locks of hair, green now, masquerading the sickly pallid green of the indigo streaks that had faded. Maybe it was time to dye her hair again. Or more of it. Maybe she should get a tattoo.

"I'm okay," she told him after another couple of breaths, sliding her arm around his waist and hugging him. All that growing and she'd only ever managed to come up to the top of his shoulder. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not." His fingers curled, brushing along her back and shoulder the way he had since... hell, maybe since that first time in Hong Kong. He always gave the greatest hugs.

"I will be," she told him, settling against him to a standing position that did not involve slipping on wet leaves and snow. "I'm just... tired."

He gave it a second before he said it. "And emotional?"

"Shut up. I haven't been drinking."

"No, you haven't. And I'm proud of you." He kissed the top of her head and she blinked a little, trying to figure out what that meant and why her heart clenched so tight and tried to leap out her throat when he said that.

Okay, why beyond the obvious.

... had her feelings for him come back that strong? She'd gotten so used to ignoring the crush, subsuming it, that she'd considered herself not really in love with him anymore.

"Not much point to it when we might have to run or fight or something..." Things she couldn't do while drunk. And seeing her mom drugged up like that had made drinking to get visions clearer lose its appeal. "Anyway, we've got enough supplies to keep in the house, we don't need to be buying out liquor stores."

It took her a second to identify that rumbling noise as his quiet laughter, heard through his chest. She bapped him on the shoulder with a tiny fist. "Ow! What?" Still laughing. She had to smile.

"Don't you laugh at me," she teased, putting on a mock pout that only made him laugh harder. He shifted the arm around her shoulders to steer her down the hill again, and she turned with him. It was freezing out here anyway. "Bastard."

"Sorry." Not at all sorry. But she didn't mean for him to be anyway.

They walked back to the house much lighter than they had been, more relaxed, and still huddled together against the cold and the slippery slope. Nothing had been resolved, and Cassie knew that somewhere at the back of her mind, but right now she didn't care too much. She could get through dinner with laughing and teasing and throwing food at Nick, maybe being more cheerful than she had been in a while. Since they got there. At least. Maybe longer than that.

Didn't much matter right now. Right now what mattered was not tracking in snow and cold mud everywhere, and beating Nick to the couch so she could steal all the blankets and wrap them around her frozen feet.

\---

"We should figure out what to do about..." He didn't finish the sentence. Zen planning worked a lot better if you didn't let yourself finish sentences or thoughts, just sort of implied what you meant and let the other person draw conclusions. It also worked a lot better if the other person knew you well enough to guess what was on your mind, which was why he still had a good supply of index cards, envelopes, and pens. Colored markers were for Cassie.

She nodded, her cheek brushing against the hollow of his shoulder. It was springtime, it was getting on towards time they did something. And her mother was about as good as she was going to get, by her own admission.

"Use it or lose it," she mumbled a bit, not wanting to think about it. "How... we can't give it to them, Nick. We can't. If it's at all effective, better than theirs? They'll want it bad enough to trade anything for it, and if it isn't they won't, because they've already been working on it. And if we say we'll deal with them for it, we can only do that once before they're onto us."

His fingers curled through her hair, combing it out long and spreading it over her shoulders, green and gold. They'd had fun with that on St. Patrick's day.

"If we go for the other way... who would you risk?" he asked, and then "No," right about at the same time as she said,

"I'll take it. Nick," she added. "I can handle it. Seriously."

"No, Cassie."

She hadn't heard that tone from him in years. Pushing herself up, she propped her chin on his chest and looked over at him. "Why." He might have his reasons, but she wasn't going to give up without a fight. No, she wasn't going to give _him_ up without a fight, and this was untested. This solution could kill him.

He sat up, too, one arm around her back to keep her snuggled against him. "Because it took you this long to learn how your powers work and how to control them, and if it does work? If you're suddenly seeing twenty different futures every second, then what?"

It was a frighteningly good argument. So she hit him in the shoulder. "And what about you? What if this thing, if it really does amp your powers up that much, what if you start Moving things without being able to control it? You might not go crazy, but what if..."

"If it comes to that, and I don't think it will, we can handle it. There's only so long I can last, Moving..."

Oh, for that she hit him again, harder, this time. "Don't you say that. Don't you fucking say that you stupid, stupid... Are you _trying_ to martyr yourself? If you start Moving that much you _will_... " She didn't want to say die, but he would. She'd seen people overload their powers.

"No, I'm not trying... I don't want to be a martyr, Cassie. I don't want to be a revolutionary either." He almost shouted it, and still close enough to her that she could feel his breath over her face. "I don't want this to be a war, they're making it a war. If we had a choice, I wouldn't, but we don't. We're out of choices."

She stared at him for one of those moments where she couldn't believe this was happening, all of it. And the fact that they were holding a near-screaming match with her, by now, straddling his lap and in her nightgown, him in his pajama trousers.

"Don't. Don't you dare."

They stared at each other for a second. And another second, and it was hard to tell how much time passed with so few clocks in the house.

"Cassie... please."

Another moment and she dropped her head, slumping over around the same time as he slumped back on the bed. She squinched her eyes shut tight so he wouldn't see her cry if she was going to, she wasn't sure. Both ideas scared her. Her going insane, him using his powers to death. He was sort of right, it was probably safer if he took it, but that didn't make it all right. That didn't make it any better.

She shook her head and crawled out of bed, throwing on a robe and shoving her feet into her slippers. "I need to think about this." Or drink. Or both.

"Cass..." He reached out to pull her back into the bed but she was already in the doorway, one hand on the knob of the banister at the top of the stairwell. Swinging herself around and pounding down the slippery hardwood steps to the living room to curl up on the couch.

\---

It felt weird being out among people, in town. After spending all that time up at the house, how long had it been since she'd seen the faces of anyone other than the gang? Except on the television, obviously.

It was Toby and Dani's idea, she was pretty sure. At least it was Dani's idea, the older woman had been giving them sideways looks for a while. She knew about Cassie's crush. Had known since Cassie was little, but with everything that had happened it was hard to say whether or not Dani was trying to encourage or discourage or maybe just bring Nick into a better favor with Cassie and make everyone happier for not having them slouching around the whole house. Their conversations were stilted and awkward. He couldn't sneak off and take it because she would see the moment he decided to, she'd know. And might stop him. And if she snuck off and took it, she knew Nick would never forgive her.

Being out among people wouldn't change that, but it was kind of refreshing not to be staring at the same twelve faces all the time.

"Apple?" Nick held one up, and when Cassie nodded, tossed it to her. She caught it, took a crunchy bite, juice dripping down her chin. He smiled.

He hadn't smiled in a while.

She took a couple steps closer as he packed some in a bag for her, marked it down on the little tally sheet for the checkout.

Apples, melons. Some gourds, still. She wasn't sure where this fruit had come from, probably half of it was hothouse fruit, but she was really glad to be in a season where there were green things all over the place. Bright colors of yellows, reds, oranges. And it getting to be early evening and the sun still shining. Thank god.

She went through the rows, finding a couple other things and making trips back to Nick and putting a bunch of carrots, a melon into the bag. He gave her a look for it, eyebrows up and mouth twitching a bit at the corner. The ends of her green and blonde ponytail bapped his arm as she turned and went off again.

When Cassie looked up one last time Nick was nowhere to be found, and her stomach twisted. She went up to the checkout table to pay for the apple and try to find him.

"Oh, that's all right, your husband said you had one out to snack on."

Cassie blinked. "But I'm..." Except what occurred to her to say was 'not pregnant' and what she really meant was 'not married' and, husband? Nick? Seriously?

Toby had said something about the kids don't like it when Mommy and Daddy fight.

She plastered a smile on her face and nodded and pretended she knew what the older woman was talking about, thanking her and not quite running out to the parking lot.

"Hey, where are you going?" Her breath wooshed out, and she whirled. Nick was squirreling away the fruit and veggies in the car around the boxes and crates of more long-term food from the big box store. So she ran up and hit him in the arm, because he'd freaked her out. "Ow!"

"Next time, you _tell_ me when you're disappearing, okay??"

He frowned a little. "I thought you were supposed to know these things?" Cassie opened her mouth to yell some more. "Hey... ... you okay?"

Because it wasn't like her to get upset over something so small. Like a child losing her parents in the mall, and thinking of it like that with those exact words, _losing her parents_ , made her burst into tears in the parking lot. God, that was embarrassing.

"Cassie..." He pulled her into his arms and held on tight, and she dropped the rest of the apple and wrapped her arms around him as tight as she could, digging her hands in where they met around his back. It was that, that whole thing, losing her parents, losing Kira, losing everyone. And it was probably what he had been thinking too, but that didn't matter nearly so much as her kicking his ass for scaring her like that. Or something.

She pressed her face into his shirt. "If you don't come out of that ... that thing, all healthy and infuriating, I will kick your sorry ass from here back to Hong Kong." Hard to say if he got all that, but his fingers tightened at the back of her head, in her hair.

"I'll be fine. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," she mumbled, and thought of that woman at the checkout table. "Better yet, don't make promises. Just do it."

"I will. I really will." And he stepped back, hands coming down to cup her face, thumb brushing through the last couple of tears. "Can we go home now? Without you hitting me?" he added, plaintive but with one of those smiles. That 'you-trust-me' smile. That she'd seen, off and on, for the last seven years. She looked up at him and tried to make a face but it came out in a smile instead.

And then, because she could and because she wanted to and mostly because it was just Nick, she stretched up on her toes and kissed him.


	5. Blue Monday

Time blurred.

Sometimes Cassie joked that she ate like a linebacker and looked like a Victoria's Secret model because of all the damn running. This was a little different. She led the pack of three, her and Nick and Dani, taking them through the mall and out the door where the alarm wires had shorted out a couple days ago and wouldn't be fixed until tomorrow, but she hadn't known that until she was twenty feet from the exit. Visions of the future overlaying the present slid through her mind, telling her which way to go.

It would have been fun if they hadn't been running for their lives. No one really liked Bleeders, especially Division Bleeders. There was just no controlling their powers, and they'd had way too many bad experiences.

"Cassie, are you..." Dani panted, more for the sake of arguing, she thought. Either that or because of the three of them, she'd gone up against more Bleeders, personally. Cassie took them around the building and dived into a waiting van, pulling the doors shut behind them.

She patted the startled sound tech or whatever he was, too. "Just take us around to the other side of the mall, please? Quick as you can." He was surprised enough that he did so.

"You're nuts, you know that, right?" Still, Nick was smiling when he moved around to the driver's side of their car, not running now that they had a good two or three minute lead on them. Cassie and Dani piled in the passenger seat and the back, slamming doors shut and pulling on their seatbelts before Nick Moved them around them.

Cassie stuck her tongue out at him as they peeled out of the parking lot. "You like my nuts."

"That's gross." Dani laughed, thwapping the back of Cassie's chair.

Blue skies, clear skies, would have meant a good day back at the house in the hills, and she still had a little of that reflex when she looked up at the tops of the trees they passed. Palm trees, now. They were in California.

"So, she wasn't there, now what?" Nick looked over at Cassie, who had sent them to the mall in the first place. Cassie frowned, trying to concentrate.

"Stupid Watcher they got is almost as amped up as I am," she muttered. "Either that or they got lucky. Anyway, it looks like..." Little flashes, dark clouds on a darker sky, a mailbox lit by a pale streetlight that needed its bulb replaced. She knew the street number, but if she could find the address. "She'll be at home for dinner tonight, we can try and pick her up there."

Everyone nodded, no longer smiling. It wasn't an easy thing to think about, dragging a teenager into this. Not that any of them had been as old as this girl was when they'd been thrown headfirst into a world of fear and danger and constantly being hunted. Maybe she didn't even know who she was. Or what she was, what she could do.

They had an idea, though. They had discovered, and Elizabeth had confirmed, that while the super-serum Division was still trying to perfect had stalled the breeding program continued. Harvesting the seeds of specials and mixing them to see what happened, inviting married couples within the organization to take advantage of free IVF treatments if they could not conceive a child on their own. Considering how expensive it was otherwise, many of them jumped at the chance.

"Are we..." Dani started, which Cassie interrupted with a headshake and, "Yes."

Yes, they were going to. Maybe not push it all the way, but they had to at least try.

\---

"You okay?" Nick murmured, steering her into the warehouse-slash-club-slash-apartment they called home for now. Up the stairs and around the back past the flickering blue neon lights that stabbed her in the eyeballs. She had a headache. Too many possibilities.

Cassie shook her head in a very slow, tiny motion. "I'll be fine. Just need..." Some rest.

That she wasn't going to get because Dani was arguing with someone in the loft. Or what passed for a loft.

"She'll think about it? You just left and she's going to think about it? How much did you tell her?"

Cassie and Nick exchanged a look, and then he took her by the shoulders and steered her towards the stairs to the upper level, and their bed. "Can you keep your voice down, just a little?" he murmured. And then something else she didn't catch because she was dragging her sorry ass upstairs and falling into bed.

Yeah, Trina had said she'd think about it. By the look of it she'd been scared by what she was told. Terrified. Her parents hadn't seemed okay either.

But it was irritating to think that Peter didn't trust either her or her ability as a Watcher to see what was coming. To see whether or not it had been a bad decision to leave the girl Trina on her own to decide whether or not she wanted to turn against her parents' employers, everything that she knew and that paid for all she held dear. Or maybe he just didn't like that she and Nick were deciding who got the serum and who didn't, who could be trusted with it and who couldn't. She'd already heard him muttering often enough, both in visions and in passing, about how sure was anyone if this thing actually worked.

Toby always told him to shut up. Cassie did that now, in her head, burying her face in the bed and pulling the pillow over her head. Stupid headache. She got them less these days, but it always happened when she was trying to keep track of too many futures, the present, and function as an adult human being instead of a computer. Thank god, they felt more like stress headaches these days instead of full-on migraines. She'd yarked in Toby's car, once, and she had never heard a man shriek so high or seen him 'port so fast in her life. Not that she could blame him. Redelivered pizza was the super-gross.

She was about to redeliver that fine dinner Mr. and Mrs. York had treated them to, before they found out who they really were and what they were up to. Cassie dragged herself up out of bed and leaned over the railing.

"... were you thinking?" Peter snapped, and she didn't need to hear the first part of that sentence to have an idea of where he was going with it. "Were you even thinking? Or were you too busy looking at the next girl you were going to save?"

Cassie thunked her head off the railing then regretted it in the next instant. Ow.

"I never said I was going to save anyone," Nick told him. "I didn't say I ..."

"You didn't have to. It's ... look at who you hang out with, man." She saw him gesture at Dani, who gave him the rude finger in return and muttered something to the effect of _leave me out of this._ "And Cassie, your little girlfriend, she's your princess in the tower, isn't she? You just love playing white knight on horseback."

"First of all, if I was playing white knight on horseback, I'd've brought her back here already," Nick told him, "Second of all, if we try and coerce her into helping us undo all the coercions Division's put on people like us... you see what I'm getting at, here?"

"That's my boy," Cassie whispered, grinning.

Peter seemed to deflate a little, hard to tell from this height and angle. "I didn't mean coerce her. I meant..."

"Can you even take someone to a secret base non-coercively without their permission? Is that possible? I mean, I always thought it was a myth..." The Pusher's sarcasm dripped. Peter glared at Dani.

"He could have taken Tobias..."

She shook her head. "No, he couldn't have. Tobias has his own mission, and this is ours, that's why we hashed this all out two weeks ago, or don't you remember?"

Peter turned a lovely shade of purple at that. It was a sore spot with him, how he'd been Pushed young to forget all the bad things Division had done to him, and before that, his parents. Huge gaps in his memory, because the Pusher had half-assed it and hadn't bothered to replace the old memories with something new so he'd just forgotten. Dani pushed that button on purpose, and Cassie winced, closing her eyes for a second to see if even that casual remark would result in trouble down the line.

It would. Pale flicker-glow of a cheap bathroom light over graffiti-stained walls and cracked tile floors, the color wash turning the blood black. She wasn't sure if it was Peter's blood or Dani's, but the link between comment and consequence was enough to make her raise her voice. "Quit it, all of you."

Nick looked up with gratitude and frowning concern. Dani's expression was the same as always, Peter looked upset and angry. She came down the stairs again, one hand clenched on the cold steel railing to keep her balance through the vision that was clinging to the edges of her mind. Stickers in Cyrillic advertising services of various kinds, none of them savory, gave her an idea of whose blood that was. Peter probably ran home to sulk and got killed for it. Had gotten. Would have gotten. Stupid future visions and their lack of grammatical correctness.

"Peter, you were thinking of going home again, right?" Cassie didn't bother waiting for a response, thought little of the other man's startled look. "Don't give me that, you know what I am, what I can do. Whether or not you think it's real or Nick and I are 'just pretending.'" Sarcastic air-quotes surrounded those last two words. She pushed turquoise and pink streaks out of her face with one hand and the visions faded with them.

"Sorry," Dani shrugged, semi-sincere. Cassie gave her a look. "What?"

"Can we just agree that we're all doing the best we can, and let it go at that?" Nick frowned, coming over and sliding an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him even if the headache was fading, mostly because she liked it. "I'm not going to make anyone sign up for this, Peter. We were all stuck, we all got thrown into it when we were all way too young, and I'm not going to tell anyone they have to sacrifice what's left of their childhood to save our asses. She's not our only hope."

Peter looked between them, didn't look at Dani but back and forth between Nick and Cassie for several seconds. Cassie let herself let go of the now for a second and dipped into the future, into Peter talking with others, Toby and Gene and the rest, Peter arguing with someone. People shaking their heads and turning away. Why was he turning away?

"You can't take over, Peter," she guessed, still unfocused and drifting in voice and eyes. "You might as well just stick with us. You're safer with us, and you can't take over. This isn't..." Uh. She'd lost track of what she was saying.

"This isn't a war, this isn't an army. We're not pressing people into service."

That was it. Cassie grabbed for the thread of conversation and the present again. "And we aren't looking for a general or a frothing at the mouth revolutionary. We need people who can take care of everyone, and like it or not, right now that's me and Nick."

Peter looked at her for a second. "That's really creepy, you know?" Then he shook his head. "No, I don't like it. But I guess I can do nothing about it, can I?"

Blue light filtered in past the sheen of water and mist in the air, carried in the drops; sometime while they had been arguing it had started to pour down. Cassie turned away from the wet and the noise and buried her face in Nick's soft gray sweatshirt. He sighed, she felt him sigh, rubbing his hand over her back and through her hair.

\---

Trina showed up at the club two nights later, alone. She hadn't wanted to, but her parents suddenly started acting funny when they came home from work the next day. "I guess they panicked," she sniffled, turning into the older woman's arm and shaking. "They must have... done something, what did you call it, Pushing? Pushed them, and..."

Cassie walked with her for an hour, hour and a half, and wondered if this was what Kira had felt like, talking out Cassie's jitters with her. The age difference was a little closer but not by much.

After that they bought her some clothes and an old navy blue backpack and Dani Pushed her parents into believing she was away at a special summer camp. Nick and Cassie both promised her she could restore her parents' memories after it was over. At least, after her part in it was over.

"I don't like this," Cassie murmured, keeping her eyes closed so the present didn't collide into the future too much and make her vomit. Technicolor yawn took on whole new meanings and became her new favorite phrase for when the world turned sideways and dissolved into streams of color.

Which happened less and less, as she got the hang of controlling her amped-up powers. Easier than learning to control it the first time around.

"No one likes this, Cass. Just keep the engine running?"

Smoke breaks were the easiest to get people at Division. The Pushed, the specials who were blackmailed or brainwashed into hunting down and torturing their people manifested their anxiety in many ways, through many addictive behaviors. Including smoking. Nick and Trina walked up, pretending to spread the Word, smiling and touching people and handing out pamphlets that had a real phone number on it and a whole lot of phony propaganda. Cassie kept the engine warm in case they needed to run. This was the fifth place they'd hit.

And they both kept an eye on things afterwards. They moved several buildings down in the compound and switched places, Nick driving and Cassie Watching. She curled up in the back seat and tried to see what was coming for them, tell Nick if they'd been made and were being chased. It had happened a couple of times.

She didn't tell him about the people she saw, after, who couldn't take the revelation of what had happened to them and what they'd done and killed themselves. Two shootings, one hanging, one person locking himself in the car in the garage and that vision dissolved in a haze of gray-blue smoke.

Casualties of war. She didn't tell Nick, though she had the feeling he found out about it anyway. They all kept an eye on the papers. And kept it from Trina, by unspoken agreement.

Nick and Trina came back at a trot from the building, sliding into the car almost at the same time as Cassie drove off. A few minutes later she crawled into the back, curling with her back pressed against the cold leather and her face tucked against her knees. "Nothing yet," she mumbled. "Keep driving."

\---

They tucked Trina in and moved to the next room over in the suite, sparing concerned glances over their shoulders. She was exhausted in every way possible; Cassie remembered being that way, too. Once, a long time ago.

"She'll be okay," Nick tried to reassure her, rubbing a hand over her shoulder before he moved away to shuck off his blue jeans and sweater and fall face first on the bed because he knew it made her giggle.

It still did. "Dork. Move over already." Cassie had old princess pajamas, Sleeping Beauty pajamas because Gene sometimes teased her about how often she looked like she was sleeping, when she was keeping an eye on things. "She will. And I don't think we'll be doing this much longer."

"Oh, really?" He lifted his arm so she could crawl under it, tucking her face against his chest and drumming her fingers along his ribs. "... That a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Good thing." Sort of. "I think this, or maybe the next one, but soon... it's all building up, and it's going to bust wide open soon."

Nick gave that some thought for a second before he shifted her with a murmured apology, got up to go brush his teeth before bed. Which wasn't a bad idea, only she was comfortable now. She still grabbed a toothbrush, still in package, and threw it after him. It bounced off his butt, too.

"Cassie!"

She giggled into the rough hotel room pillowcase.

He came out of the bathroom a couple minutes later, trying to talk and brush his teeth at the same time. "Farfhnt oai oo-ff..."

Cassie almost threw the pillow at him this time, rising up on her knees and brandishing it. "Brush your teeth! Then tell me," she made a face at him.

"Mmmph." He went back in, rinsed, spat, came back out waving the turquoise toothbrush. "You gave me yours. Mine's the green one, remember?"

She blinked at him. After a while she'd started noticing that she'd been getting him green toothbrushes more often than any other color and just started getting them on purpose, whenever they went shopping for the necessaries. One of the little things to connect, little ways that made them smile one time or another, remembering the first time they'd met. Fought. Whichever.

One time when she was really, really mad at him she'd bought him a bright pink Barbie toothbrush. Kira had laughed until she'd cried and fallen off the bed, and Nick had caught her, hovering her so she was twisting and giggling in mid-air. And then no one was mad.

Cassie put her hand up to her mouth, remembering that. Her mouth wanted to smile but her eyes wanted to cry, and the noise that came out instead was something between a gulp and a sob and sucked in air backwards, down her throat. Whereupon she choked, and then the tears really did start coming. Nick stopped smiling, came over and sat by her, pulling her into his arms after a second when the sobbing didn't stop.

"Hey... What's up? this better not be about the toothbrush," he managed, half-teasing, all-worried.

She gulped and laughed at the same time, shaking her head. "No. Dorkus." Another couple of gulped-down breaths. "No, it's not... it's... Kira."

And now Nick went still and rigid, remembering and hurting. They hadn't talked much about her since a few months after she died, not among themselves anyway. They still remembered. Still did some of the things that the three of them had done, but they didn't talk about her to protect themselves. "What about Kira?"

"You think she knew what this was going to turn into? I mean, you think she knew..." Cassie sucked down a couple more breaths. "We wouldn't be doing any of this if it weren't for her. If she hadn't... We wouldn't have gotten the serum, or my mom, or..."

Nick hugged her tighter, curling around her so she could burrow into him and pretend the rest of the world didn't exist. His voice came out with echoes and reverb from where her head was wedged under his chin. "I think she knew. I think she knew it'd give us a shot, at least. And before you ask, yeah. I think she'd like what we're doing."

It was the most non-violent solution they could think of, in a way. The best thing they could come up with short of overturning the whole thing entirely. All those people who had been brainwashed into serving a cause not their own, all those people who had been fooled, now were getting to see. And make their own choices. By the look of the way things were going, a lot of them were choosing to do as much damage as they could to the people who had manipulated them and then disappearing. Which was fine by Cassie.

As long as Division came down, and then they could all stop disappearing, stop running. Make homes and be people, like everyone else.

"What do you think we'll do after this is over?"

Nick shook his head; she could feel it by the movement of his chin through her hair, which made her smile a little. It felt funny, his stubble on her hair. And it felt nice. "I have no idea..."


	6. Mood Indigo

"This is a bad idea." Cassie pushed her hands through her hair, fluffing it out along her shoulders a little. Colorless except for her natural blonde, for the first time in over ten years. It looked weird. "This is such a bad idea."

"This is a perfect idea, shush." Dani came over with the strings of beads. "And stand still, this stuff is _not_ easy to do."

"Hell, I don't know about any of it..." She smoothed her hands down the line of her deep blue, almost purple dress. It didn't shimmer, it sucked in the light and reflected back very little, indigo light with navy and wine colored highlights. She'd picked it out with Dani's help once they got to Chicago, started looking around for apartments to rent. Started talking about an actual date.

Neither of them had really meant for it to happen, but somehow Dani had mentioned that there was a Bela Fleck concert coming up at the House of Blues and how long had it been, anyway, since they'd had a chance to relax?

"And, I mean, you two are married now, and..."

"That was an accident!" Cassie pointed a finger at Dani. "You shush! You ..."

Toby didn't even have to look up. "You still have your ring on."

She spun it on her finger now as a way of fidgeting while not moving her head or shoulders, pink and blue and green on a gold band. She still didn't remember much of that night. Vegas, parties, booze in great quantities for the first time in a while, and somehow ... well, it didn't matter too much. They'd been together for a few years by that point. She didn't plan on moving on at any point. It was just weird.

"There. Now you're ready." Dani let her hair fall down her back and Toby looked up and blinked, mouth dropping open a bit.

"Holy..."

Cassie took a couple delicate steps and turned and looked in the mirror and she wasn't even sure who she was looking at. Her hair shimmered and cast rainbows over everything for maybe a foot radius. Down onto her shoulders, where it all disappeared into her dress almost, a dress that hugged her body in a way she hadn't seen in, well. A while. She'd been in jeans and t-shirts and jackets and running for so long she'd forgotten that she'd grown up and could now wear slinky dresses like a lot of women did.

"You really think I can pull this off?"

Dani turned her around and started moving her towards the door before she panicked and undid all their hard work. "I know it. Go, have some fun for once. You guys deserve it."

\---

Nick stared at her when she got out of the cab. Just plain stared. Speechless, and it made Cassie nervous, but she stayed right where she was because she had the sudden fear that if she moved in any way the illusion of her calm and poise would shatter like a glass ornament. It hadn't been there a moment ago. She was a spun glass ornament, handle carefully or you'll break it. And he was still staring.

And after a second, she felt the ends of her hair moving over her shoulders and bare back. In the nonexistent wind.

She grinned, and it was probably a goofy little girl with a crush type grin but she didn't care. And Nick grinned back. Now they could be just the two of them again, albeit dressed the hell up and at the House of Blues for a concert. He turned and extended his arm, which she took. "Shall we?"

"Totally."

 

Inside, there were all kinds of places to sit, all of them looking pretty swell. They told the person at the door they had reservations for a table, and they must have looked pretty romantic because they were shown to a table with a really good view of the stage. Cassie and Nick exchanged a look and a shrug; well, they were on a date.

Their first date. Despite the fact that they'd been a couple for years.

"Think we could make a routine of this?" Cassie asked, twirling the straw in her water glass. "I mean, not like this, obviously, but..."

"I'm still getting used to the fact that we could make a routine out of anything. At all." He looked around, at the stage where the band was setting up, at the decor, but his eyes kept coming back to her. It was kind of nice, she realized, not just to be the focus of attention but for him not to keep looking around like he expected them to be attacked at any moment.

Hell, it was nice just to be able to focus her attention on the present for a whole evening. She was getting real tired of living in two time zones at once, as they put it.

"Hey..." Nick reached across the table and covered her hand with one of his. Entirely. She had tiny hands compared to his. "Date night, remember?"

"I remember," she grinned over at him, pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind. "How could I forget? Dani spent like fifteen minutes on my hair."

"Yeah, I kind of noticed that..." Again, her hair moved in the non-existent wind and this time the prisms chimed against each other, casting rainbows over his forearm and the glass and her wrist. She smiled. "I like it. Even if it looks a little... you un-dyed it."

"I had Otto Move it out of my hair for tonight. There's replacement dye in the bathroom back at home."

Nick laughed, leaned in and stole a kiss which she returned with something approaching giddy delight. "That's my girl."

She could breathe again when she sat back down. Not that she'd ever really stopped, except for that second when they were staring at each other at first and then they'd managed to get past that, but something about this night and all the things they were doing, even the little things, it made a difference. She leaned back and looked him up and down. Deep charcoal gray really suited him. Brought out the color of his eyes.

"What?" That smile was more shy than anything else.

"Nothing. Just looking at the most handsome man in this club and wondering ...." She couldn't finish that sentence with a straight face. Or without blushing, either. "How I got so lucky."

That part was true anyway. Just to survive, she'd been lucky. To survive and come out in a stable relationship with a guy she'd adored forever, and with friends she could trust and rely on. And most of them still alive. Really damn lucky.

Nick caught her eyes as she brought her thoughts back to the here and now, a small smile tempered by solemn eyes. "We did. We made it."

"Yeah, we did. We earned our happy endings." Cassie took a breath, lifted her head again. "Or at least, this date."

The waitress brought their drinks as the lights dimmed a little over the stage, and the spots came up. Deep blue, soft white. They looked at each other and grinned like kids at Christmas, then turned to watch the show with only half a thought spared for what they might like to eat at this dinner they were supposedly having. She wriggled her fingers up through his and squeezed his hand, under the shadow of the candle that burned in its House of Blues indigo glass on their table.


	7. Purple Haze

Sunset painted the sky vivid colors, pink, purple, red. Like cotton candy, almost. "Dammit, now I want cotton candy."

"If you want to drive all the way into town, you can have cotton candy." Nick's voice rumbled over her shoulder as he smiled, pressed a kiss against her temple.

"Not at this time of night. Maybe if I can make one of them do it," she gestured down the hill at the gang of kids, teenagers, who were playing some kind of game of tag that didn't really follow any rules she could determine. "There's a couple of them who just got their licenses, they'd jump at the chance."

"Do you really want to let them behind the wheel of the--"

"No." Cassie laughed.

She'd been on the run for over ten years. She'd seen thousands upon thousands of potential futures, but somehow she still hadn't imagined it would come down to this. A house in the hills, three bunking cabins with two more to be built, and her and Nick and a handful of others teaching young specials how to use their powers responsibly and avoid detection. It felt like a comic book, among other things.

Sometimes it just felt like domestic life. Only with twenty six kids instead of two or three. "So, Professor," she murmured, leaning back into him and pulling the shawl around her shoulders. Which led to Nick wrapping his arms around her shoulders and Moving the blanket over to cover them both. "Ooh, you're handy. So, ready to add one or two more to our band of merry lunatics?"

"Professor?" he asked, chuckling. "You seeing some new recruits in our future?"

"No-o..." She took a breath, trying to think if this was something she was ready for, herself. At least, though, she was ready to talk about it now. "I was thinking more of trying it the old-fashioned way."

There was a long enough silence that she wondered what he thought she meant by that, if he thought she was trying to tell him something that had already happened or what. She had her mouth open to clarify when he coughed and said something. "You thinking, now or..." Nick's voice was his confused voice, the I have no idea what you're doing but it doesn't sound bad voice. He was probably also making that face she found incredibly cute. "I mean, we just started the class, and I don't know if..."

"Calm down, X-dork, I mean like in the next year or two. I don't even know if I'm ready for stuff like that now. I just figured... I've been thinking about it some. Figured I'd ask."

"Asking's good," she felt his breath hot on the back of her head, right before the kiss. "I don't know, I guess we'll have to think about it."

There, that hadn't been so hard. Or bad. And now they had that big ugly purple afghan bundled around them and the game of tag seemed to be winding down, along with the last of the daylight.

"Why 'X-dork,' anyway?" he asked, as though realizing what she'd called him just then.

"Well," she freed one hand from the blanket to gesture with. "I mean, you're obviously Professor X, which makes me.. um. I don't know. No clue, and then Peter gets to be Wolverine because you two fight all the time..."

"... do not."

"And Dani's Jean Gray, Toby's either Cyclops or Iceman, and..."

"Did you just call me a bald old guy?"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not..."


End file.
